Everyone looks forward to summer vacations. A much-needed break from the day-to-day grind and a time to get away with family is important.

However, a road-trip with said family can sometimes be… exhausting. Not to mention stressful. Parents know exactly what I mean. Especially moms. It’s up to moms to get everything packed and ready for vacations usually, so we’re tired before we even get started.

You pack up your family for a long drive in an enclosed space and there’s bound to be some tension. If you have more than one child, I’m sure you’ve experienced the bickering from the backseat. Kids get bored and bored kids equal bickering.

I remember road-trips with my siblings and they could be excruciating. It’s the reason I decided to have an only child.

I’m kidding. Well, it’s not the main reason, anyway.

Even with one child, road-trips can be stressful. My son may not have siblings to bicker with, but he doesn’t have a sibling to entertain himself with either.

With only one child YOU (the parent) have to entertain your child.

We’ve found that by entertaining our son or just participating in the fun we have on road-trips, the time actually goes by so much faster. It’s a win-win.

In fact, road-trips have become a lot of fun over the last few years for us. Especially when we go on summer vacations.

I’ll share with you our tips on surviving road-trips and hopefully your next road-trip will be as enjoyable as ours are to us. Although we would have an even more pleasurable road-trip if we had the 2016 Chevrolet Traverse, the ultimate vehicle for busy moms like me.

How to Survive Your Next Road-Trip

Music

It’s everyone’s personal preference, but music is a MUST on a road-trip. I can’t drive 5 miles without music, so I couldn’t even imagine a long drive in a car without music.

We have sing-alongs and we each get a chance to listen to our favorite radio stations, all family-friendly, of course. My son’s favorite stations are ones that play pop music and I like to listen to stations that play – 80s music. You got to love the music from the 80s, some of it is cheesy, but so much fun. We do allow him to use headphones from time to time, since there are times when you may just need to relax or be quiet.

We play a lot of music-related games, too. I’ll share those under games….

Games

Games to play in the car are so easy to find. You can buy games that are specifically for playing in the car. Our son has a trivia card game that we play on road-trips, sometimes.

The kids and other passengers in the vehicle can, thanks to today’s technology, play games on their tablets and smartphones.

Or, like us, you can play games that are free. The best part: You can be creative and make up games as you go. We play the alphabet game, where someone chooses a topic (food, movie, famous person, etc.) and everyone has to say something that starts with that letter of the alphabet. If I start, I get the letter “A” and would say, “Apple,” for example.

As I mentioned above, we also love to play games revolving around music. Like, “Name that Song.” When the next song comes on the radio, the first person to correctly name the song, wins.

There really are no limits to the types of car games you can play on a road-trip.

Wishing we had a Chevrolet Traverse for all our adventures.

Snacks

Be sure to pack snacks and water. Things that are easy to eat and satisfying are perfect, because hungry travelers are grumpy travelers. I wouldn’t recommend fruit or chocolate, since both can be messy. You also don’t want foods that would hype up your kids.

Navigation

There’s nothing worse than being on a long road-trip and then getting lost. To be fair, no one is ever REALLY lost driving, you’re just temporarily misplaced, but after driving for hours you’re ready to reach your destination. You sure don’t want to have to spend any more time driving around than you have to, right?

To keep yourself on the right road, be sure to have a GPS or like us, a smartphone. I think most, if not all, smartphones have a built-in navigation system nowadays.

I also highly recommend you keep these essentials in your vehicle for road-trips (or anytime)…

First-aid Kit

Extra water

Phone Charger

Wipes and/or hand sanitizer

Flashlight

Pillow and lightweight blanket

As you go on your summer vacations and road trips this summer, I hope these tips will make your life a bit easier and that your next road-trip can be a fun-filled bonding time with your family.

With spacious seating, ample cargo space and available safety and entertainment technologies, there’s no better vehicle to bring the family together than the Chevrolet Traverse.

Talk about perfect timing, we leave on our family vacation in just four days. I plan to take along an overabundance of snacks and an entire case of water along with the kids tablets, the portable DVD player, books and travel games!

GPS is fine but I HIGHLY recommend an atlas, as well. We took lots of road trips when I was a kid and I held that thing in my lap. It helped me learn how to read a map, geography, the interstate system. It helped me learn to figure out when we’d get there by average speed and distance.

I remember the road trips that I use to take when I was little. My sister and I were given lots of great books, colouring materials, games, and other stuff…no, no electronics back then! But, we always had a blast in the back seat…as long as we weren’t driving for more than 3 or 4 hours! Then we would get on each others’ nerves!!!

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